Arusha, Tanzania

We crossed the border from northern Malawi into south western Tanzania near Mbeya. The first thing we noticed was how fast the buses drive, one after another would blast past us on our way to Dar es Salaam.

From Dar we caught the ferry over to Zanzibar. We left the Landy parked up in a church car park which seemed well guarded and crossed our fingers that all would be well and the Landy still there in one piece when we returned.

We spent three nights on Zanzibar, basing ourselves in the historic quarters of Stone Town for the first two and heading up the coast for a bit of R&R on the beach for one. Stone Town was a fascinating place and we enjoyed wandering around the alley ways, getting lost and enjoying the local tea and cakes. We did the obligatory spice tour with the reliable Mr Mitu, a change for us to be on an organised tour being shuttled around in a bus! The food stalls in the waterfront gardens provided us with very inexpensive and tasty evening meals, Zanzibar pizza being a particular speciality we came to love.

On our return to Dar we were relieved to find the Landy in perfect condition. We spent the next couple of days heading north to Arusha encountering many overloaded minibus taxis packed with people, luggage and the occasional goat in the boot!

In Arusha we met a great Turkish guy touring through Africa in a fairly haphazard way on a motorbike and the support crew for the Tour d'Afrique, a cycling event from Cairo to Cape Town. We arranged to meet up with them in Nairobi and travel through northern Kenya to the Ethiopian border.

Rather than take our own vehicle into Ngorongoro crater at a cost of $400 we decided to join an organised tour. It was a spectacular place and the extraordinary site of herds of buffalo, zebra and antelope roaming around on the 20km wide crater floor was well worth it.

So after getting the Land Rover power steering fixed up in Arusha we head ever northwards to -Nairobi in the hope of securing an Ethiopian visa.....